


Likable

by Myth979



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Friendship is Magic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 15:34:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15197864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Myth979/pseuds/Myth979
Summary: Luna likes saying the words 'my friends.'





	Likable

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Plant_Murderer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Plant_Murderer/gifts).



> As usual, this was originally a christmas gift for Plant_Murderer.

Luna’s childhood wasn’t lonely, and she hadn’t ever been miserable, but she did have to admit to a certain amount of giddiness when she went home and got to say the words ‘my friends’ when telling her father about school. She had  _ friends.  _ They were  _ good ones.  _ Ginny even wanted to visit or be visited during the summer. 

Luna had had friends before. Really. Just not at school, and not after she turned eight. Eight year olds were surprisingly judgmental about crumple-horned snorkacks. Jenny Spindlehead had thought they were fun to talk about until Luna reported seeing them.

So. Luna had had friends. Just not for long, and nobody who would tell other students to stop making fun of her. Ginny didn’t just roll her eyes or say something, either: she started hexing. Luna knew she should object, but she had needed that book for Care of Magical Creatures. Professor Hagrid had wanted to see the entry on Snootwaffles. A tiny part of Luna had been glad that Ginny had hexed those boys.

When Luna told her father that, Xenophilius had blinked at her and frowned. “But why would anyone make fun of you in the first place?”

Her father was not the most worldly of men. Luna knew she wasn’t the most worldly of girls or possibly women, but she did understand why the other students found her odd. Nobody else seemed to care that mimsies were everywhere, or that the authorities actually denied the existence of so many creatures.

Neville listened to her talk about them. He also wanted to know what kind of plants she thought the mimsies enjoyed, or why his dittany seemed to always have holes in the leaves (beach mice. The americans thought they were endangered, but really they liked to pop up wherever they wanted and pop out of wherever they pleased. They also liked dittany). She helped him set up a transportation spell around the school lot that would send the mice back wherever they came from and suggested spraying the dittany with a touch of unicorn water and bobotuber puss for the mice that slipped by. The dittany currently prospered.

Hermione - well, Hermione always got a pinched look on her face when Luna went off on a tangent, but she didn’t bully, and she wasn’t mean. She just had trouble seeing things in front of her sometimes. Luna had every confidence that if she presented a crumple-horned snorkack to Hermione Granger, Hermione would set about making sure it was a protected species and throw the facts into the faces of all of Luna’s detractors, up to and including Ron’s brother Percy.

Ron was also kind. He had taken to walking with her in the halls sometimes when Ginny wasn’t available, and though he hadn’t hexed anyone on her behalf people often turned and walked away rather than risk dealing with Ronald Weasley and thereafter Harry Potter.

Harry, of course, was delightful. Completely oblivious to everything not happening directly under his nose, but delightful, and more similar to her father than most people would think. Why wouldn’t people like Luna, appeared to be Harry’s mindset. Luna was  _ likable.  _

She felt likable, when Harry was talking to her. She felt liked. She liked being liked, she had realized recently, when before she hadn’t really cared. It was a little unfortunate: now she was sad that more people didn’t like her. 

Only a little, though. She had friends. They were good ones. 


End file.
